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— As Shane Doan has intensified talks with interested teams, there is said to be frustrations among some interested teams who feel agent Terry Bross who’s majority of clients are baseball players, has used the media to drive up Doan’s price, and don’t like how he’s negotiated through the media. In some sense it’s an agent job to drive up the price but the sense I get from league sources is that a few teams don’t like how he’s publicly specified which teams have “strong interest”. Look for Bross to become much more quiet as Doan gets closer to picking a team.

— I get a lot of questions about Keith Yandle and I’m told Phoenix continues to listen to inquires on him but there’s been no substantive talks between the Penguins and Coyotes since the draft. The Penguins don’t have the forward depth to satisfy Coyotes needs of a top-6 forward, and another top-9 forward. “Pittsburgh is not a match ” an NHL source said.

— GM Ray Shero has often made a late move in August for an NHL forward in the past couple off-seasons with Mike Comrie, Richard the latest examples in August 2010, 2011, respectively. If he doesn’t get signed elsewhere, one name to keep an eye on for Pittsburgh bringing in on a tryout basis is Kristian Huselius who only played in 2 games last year due to groin, hip and chest injuries. His agent claims he will be healthy for start of camp and that Pittsburgh is a team he would be interested in. In 2009-2010, his last full season, Huselius had 23 goals and 63 points in 74 games. In 2010-2011 he appeared in only 39 games but still had 14 goals. He averaged 26 goals from 2006-2010. Just 33 years old, he’d be worth a look on a tryout basis.

— Evgeni Malkin turns 26 today and you can say that he hasn’t even reached his prime yet. Speaking of Malkin, I spoke with someone close to the Penguins thinking process who told me don’t be surprised if the coaching staff gives Eric Tangradi a long look in camp with Evgeni Malkin and James Neal. While the Penguins feel Tangradi is best suited for a bottom line role and trust me they don’t seem him as an ideal top-6 winger……..head coach Dan Bylsma is said to be intrigued about the size factor that line would have, so we could see some exploring with that unit as the Penguins have little to no other internal options if the team is unable to land a top-6 winger.